Eradication
by CrossRow
Summary: Bruce Wayne leads an underground resistance with his wife and little daughter, after Gotham is plagued by a monstrous toxin caused by the League of Shadows.
1. Chapter 1

** Eradication  
**

**Disclaimer : All Characters rightfully belong to Christopher Nolan and DC Comics**

* * *

Beginning of voice recording log:

Three years after the DX-3 outbreak...

- It all started after the nuclear reactor exploded over the icy waters of Gotham Bay. We thought the terror was over, that Gotham had finally purged the toxic horrors of the League of Shadows warfare. We were wrong. There was an interface backup plan concealed within shadows. A doctor was kidnapped from his home during Bane's occupation for the city streets. The doctor's name was Kirk Langstom, who specialized with genetic mutations with a very grim obsession of chiroptera, in other words, bats.

-I was in Florence at the time of the outbreak of toxin DX -3, the mutation virus that blanketed the streets of my city within three weeks. My wife Selina Kyle was pregnant with my daughter Alexandria Martha that the time, we were rebuilding a new life, starting fresh with new ideals and new names. I went by Damian Thomas Wraith and Selina had changed her name into Luna Maria Black..but I received a distress messaged sent through mobile from John Robin Blake. After learning about the outbreak, I left Florence and took a plane back to Gotham, not knowing that my brazen wife was following me close behind.

-When I arrived at the Gotham International airport, everything was rumble. It had become a war zone, with military tanks patrolling the streets, infected bodies piled in pits and burned. My city and everything I fought for had been turned into another Holocaust. Everyone I once knew had been killed within contact of the virus. Most of people of the city were transforming in mutated rabid vampire bats.

-The only human survivors were hidden in underground bunker chamber beneath Wayne Tower. They were Jim Gordon, Lucius Fox , Jennifer Robinson and John Blake. I was thankful that Alfred was in England with his new wife Leslie Thompskins, but my wife was here in this hell with me. She refused to go back to Florence. She wanted to fight and save the foundations of our city.

-The only thing that was difference maker of our survival was she brought our three-year old daughter along not knowing the details of this apocalyptic carnage.

-Now not only do I have to protect Gotham but also my family.

-This is the voice recording of Bruce Wayne, son of the late Thomas and Martha Wayne. This is a message for anyone left in the ruins of our city, if I do not survive this hell. The safest place in the city is coordinates written on the wall of Crime Alley. Use them with caution.

End of voice recording log.

* * *

Bruce Wayne swiped the back of his hand over his sweaty brow, his penetrating hazel eyes stared at the voice recorder as he placed next to the cracked graphite cowl, his smooth lips were fastened into a thin line as he looked at the video monitors, watching recorded footage of giant bat creatures rampaging over smashed in vehicles, and devouring gutted out corpses.

He tore a scorching gaze away, feeling his stomach whirl with unwanted bile. He tensed his sharp jaw and rose from the desk chair. He moved silently to a floor mirror and gazed at his visage with a steady glare.

He looked the same. dark wavy hair was shorten, strong cut-stone features was smooth with a brush of five o'clock shadow along the curve of his sharp jaw.

Bangs hung over his hooded and determined dark eyes and his razor-edged cheek bones were covered with grime and bruises from his battles during the midnight hours. He was wearing a rugged looking bomber jacket, with a threaded symbol of a bat etched on a patch of his left bicep. A black shirt was underneath, green army pants fitted snug over his slender waist and his hands were gloved with tattered motorcycle gloves. He no longer had patches of silver in his hair, since Selina chopped those strands off and his scarred muscles were growing thicker since he spent of his days training and preparing for battle.

Bruce narrowed his eyes at the golden wedding bang adored over his ring fingers, he felt his the edges of his fine lips slack up into a warm smile, and then he turned and looked at his wife sleeping on a cot with their daughter cradled against her chest. He moved closer, and pulled over a blanket over her trim body. He simply stared at his family for a long moment, absorbing their beauty and taking mental photographs.

Selina was beautiful; and enchanting as ever, her long dark auburn hair draped over her shoulders, red full lips parted slightly and her curvaceous body was well fit and lithe. She was liberator like him, going out into the open during the daylight hours with Jen. She was always armed with a gun strapped to her thigh and weapons in her compartment belt. She wore her noepane cat suit minus the goggles and the mask. Bruce wore his same bat suit, except the bat symbol at the center was red to represent the blood that had been split from the lost victims of toxin's devastation.

He crouched down and grazed her arm with a soothing caress of his fingers. His hazel eyes were focused on his little girl, hurled against her mother. Alexandria or Lexie was a gorgeous toddler, long straight blonde hair, full lips and freckled features. She had his piercing gaze with the mixture of hazel and caramel, and his stubbornness. She was a lot like Selina, headstrong and brazen. But she also loved to smile and make your parents laugh with her silly childish imagination.

Bruce dropped his lips softly over Selina's mouth, kissing her passionately and savoring the moment. He kissed his daughter's fair cheek whispering, " I love you, my beautiful girls." He straightened onto his boots, wincing as the time clock on one of monitors read 11:23 PM.

He parted his lips and released a shaky exhale, knowing the horrors he was going to face when he stepped out of his sanctuary.

Selina lifted herself up slightly off the cot, "Hey," she said with a sleep-hazed voice.

"Hey," he replied with a tender smile. "Go back to sleep. I'll see in the morning."

She reeled herself off the cot and sauntered over to her husband. "You don't have to go tonight."

Bruce placed his hand firmly on her shoulder, looking into her caramel eyes, and breathing out shaky exhales.

"Every moment I waste, Selina, another victim dies. I can't allow that happen. Not when I can fight."

"You don't have to do this alone, handsome." she said, placing her hand over his feverish cheek.

Bruce overlapped his hand over hers, "You're place is with our daughter, Selina. She is my life." He leaned his head in forward and rest his sweaty brow against hers. "You're my life. I can't be worrying about you," he whispered. " Not when death is out there waiting to take you away."

"I'm a tough girl, Bruce. I know how to fight my own fight." she shot back, pulling away from him, but he enclosed his broad arm over her waist. He was fast and covered her lips with a hard and watery kiss, taking her breath away, and then he looked at Lexie.

"Keep her safe and stay hidden," Bruce gave her a sullen frown, he turned and grabbed the cowl on the desk.

"What if you get infected?" she grimly asked, watching her husband toss his shirt to the floor. "I won't be strong enough to..." She narrowed her dark eyes. "...take you down."

Bruce squeezed his hazel eyes shut for a moment, before replying. "You'll do what is necessary, Selina." He glanced at the gun resting on the medial table next to her cat suit. " Just make sure to fire the bullet where it counts."

She nodded and swallowed looking at her diamond ring. " Just promise me that you'll come back."

"I will," he answered, looking at his sleeping daughter and then closed his eyes before continuing. "I never thought this would happen to Gotham. I knew the League of Shadow's would always have a back up plan...but this time it's different. This is extermination, Selina. If we don't fight then we won't survive to see another dawn."

Selina stood in front of him, and then hugged him tightly, "Then we fight for Gotham. " she said, as she became nose to nose with him, "For freedom."

"For Lexie," he replied with a defiant gleam in his eyes, casting a protective gaze over his daughter.

Selina took the mask out of his hands and gently lifted it up, easing it over his chiseled features. She pressed a soft and assuring kiss on his firm lips. "Remember you own the night, handsome."

"We both do," he grinned before kissing her once more, and then he walked away to the armory closet and finished putting on the final compartments of his armor. He moved swiftly and slid his armored body on the saddle of the Bat-pod.

"Until the dawn," he growled out, starting the bike's throttle.

"Until the dawn, she repeated, watching him drive out of the bunker. She blew him a kiss into the air.


	2. Chapter 2

-2-

"You're sure there's more in the city, son ?" Commissioner Jim Gordon asked, as he sipped a mug of coffee. He leaned against the bookshelf of his dim-lit office, dressed in tattered overcoat that hung over his slumped, and exhausted body.

John Blake grimly nodded, throwing a folder on the desk. Pictures spilled out containing images of the large nests build from collections of ramshackle belongings found in old subway tunnels.

"Everything checks out, sir," he told Gordon with a firm reply. " A few SWAT infiltrated the central points of the city, gathering these photos during the recent attack. Two officers survived and the others have all been infected with the toxin."

"You have any information on the whereabouts of latest victims," Gordon eyed the grainy pictures carefully before adding, "The alive ones."

Blake shook his head, thinking about a few of friends on the force that went into the tunnels weeks before, he witnessed the early effects of the gruesome transformation of devolving humans into a hybrid man-bats, with the similar compounds found in the blood of. Doctor Kirk Langstom who officer's discovered murdered in the basement Gotham General.

It took a few days for the progress to have the full effect through the victim's bloodstream, but the result of the toxin was a frightening and emotional experience. Blake felt his stomach twist as those memories invaded his mind when his dark eyes narrowed at the photos of bat monsters dressed in shred GCPD uniforms.

"If there any survivors, sir," Blake shifted his gaze to the cracked window. It is too late to reverse the effects to save their humanity."

Gordon hung his head down in silence, his eyes settling on the empty streets outside the MCU building, only a flickering bulb of a street lamp prevented the entire block from total blackout. His fingers ran through the graying locks of his unkempt hair. "How more officers are within the city's borders?" he asked with a shaky exhale, rubbing his hands against the tension building in his temples.

"Not many," Blake affirmed in a stronger voice, looking at the lines of desperation etched in the police Commissioner's weathered down face." Most cleared out by using the Lower fifth tunnel. There's not enough officers out there to end this crisis, sir."

The police Commissioner sighed out a ragged breath, sliding his fingers under his lens of his eyeglasses that pushed ease up the bridge of his nose to relive his grey-blue eyes when the stress consuming over him. "Gotham has ever face a crisis like this before, Blake," he spoke with defeat laced in his hoarse voice. "We were prepared for the attack and I should have officers recheck the Narrows after the rest of Bane's men were taken down by the National Guard." He readjusted his glasses, eyes were burning as he saw shadows of massive wings bounce off the walls of the buildings across his view.

"You can't put the blame on yourself, sir," Blake stepped forward, placing a firm grip on Gordon's shoulder. "The League of Shadows used tactics of deception to conceal their true plans of turning Gotham into a breeding ground for Langstom's toxin."

Gordon held the mug to his bristled covered lips. "I took the oath when I put on the uniform to serve and protect the lives of Gotham with my own."

Blake half-smiled. "Well you're doing a damn good job of keeping it, sir."

"This is not a damn good job, Blake," Gordon's said, voice raised. His mustache twitched as his lips formed a line of anguish. "This is failure of preserving the amount of humanity we have left living on the streets." He clenched his jaw hard, making his cheeks become numb. "It won't be long until all of us are shackled down with the toxin and condemn like all the others of this forsaken plague."

Blake said nothing, and tucked his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "There is one person out there who is fighting for us, sir."

Gordon nodded, and gave the young man a grim response, "And he is the one I will fear the most if the toxin ever infected him, son." He turned and gaze directly into Blake's dark brown eyes with his weariness in his stare. "If that happens than Gotham will be truly lost to the shadows."

Blake nodded and gave him an assuring smile, he walked to the door, and then looked over his shoulder "Than I guess we'll just have to keep on searching for the light."

Nodding in return, Gordon sipped his coffee, looked out at the street and stood silently as the he settled his eyes on the street lamp. Blake looked at the older man for a moment until he stepped out into the candle lit hall and vanished in the darkness.

The police Commissioner lifted his unsettling eyes to the hazy moon, once again finding himself in a devoid of thought.

* * *

Selina watched her three-year old daughter's face darken as recurring fear entered her small body. All this hiding, and staying underground was as if she had placed her baby girl in cage to shelter him from a world that will not exist have the toxin covered every nook and corner of the city. She wanted Lexie to a have happy childhood, to run freely through the gardens of the Wayne family estate and conquer her own fears. This life was one that Selina wished she could take back and rise Lexie in a suitable, luxurious environment back in Florence.

"What's wrong sweetie," Selina asked in a soft whisper, her caramel eyes looking at the little girl curled against the computer chair, with her knees tucked close to her chest. She stepped closer, stroking her hand over Lexie's soft blonde hair cascading over her freckled cheeks. Lexie lifted her head, her gorgeous hazel eyes filled with tears as her pink lips trembled. "Did you have another bad dream?" she asked with a tender smile.

Lexie nodded, tucking her head back into her knees. "Those monsters got daddy." she sobbed. "They got him."

"Lexie," Selina crouched on her boots, " Your daddy is a strong. He knows how to hold his own fight." She caressed her fingers over the toddler's cheek. "I promise you, nothing is going to happen to your daddy, sweetheart."

"You promise mommy?" Lexie's teary eyes met Selina's piercing gaze, "You promise?"

Selina smiled weakly and pressed her lips softly on her daughter's forehead. "I promise," she whispered.

"I hold you to that , mommy." Lexie replied with fierce tone, hazel-caramel eyes burning under her bangs.

Rolling her eyes, Selina mused on how much this little treasure she carried for nine-months in her womb was beginning to act more like her and Bruce every day. She kissed Lexie on the forehead again, feeling her small fingers rub over the string of pearls, until she felt the clasp unfasten and the necklace slid off her shoulder.

Lexie clutched the knuckles in her hand with a prideful smirk.

Selina laughed silently, "I can see you taught you that trick of the hand, she paused as the roaring engine of the batpod echoed in the chamber, and she purred, "Speak of the devil."

Lexie looked over her mother's shoulder, excitement gleamed in her eyes as the high-tech bike drove up the tunnel ramp and halted in front of decommissioned Tumbler. She pried herself from Selina's grasped with a girlish squeal of happiness. "Daddy!"

Batman slid his body off the bike's saddle, his black cloaked draped over his shoulders, he crouched down on his knees and opened his arms widely as his little girl rammed her tiny body into his armored chest, knocking him off his boots as he landed hard on his back, as Lexie gave him a tight-neck hug and giggled beautiful as she wrapped his scalloped forearm protectively around her.

Selina casually sauntered over to the father and daughter embrace, and crossed her arms over her chest. "She was worrying about you, handsome?"

Batman looked up at his wife, with shimmer hazel eyes behind the shadows of his cowl. "What did you tell?" he managed to asked as Lexie hugged him tighter.

"It's our little secret." She twisted her red lips into a smirk, listening the toddler giggle against her father's shoulder. "How is holding up out there?"

"More cops have went missing in last few hours." Batman growled out huskily answer. "Things are getting worse and the supplies from the Red Cross are running out." He lifted himself off the floor, holding Lexie securing in his arms." I need to head to the docks tomorrow and gather everything we need to survive before the next shipment."

Selina bit her lip, her dark eyes locked with his, "I'm coming with you. Whether you like it or not, handsome."

Batman smirked, stepping closer to his wife, he leaned in forward and simply brushed his soft hotly lips over her mouth and pressed a hard and loving kiss against her lips before saying, "I wouldn't have it any other way, Mrs. Wayne."

"Good," Selina smirked, returned with a deep and long kiss, while Lexie rested on her father's shoulder.


	3. Chapter 3

-3-

* * *

Feeling her arms enclosing themselves tightly around his waistline was a sensation that drove his nerves like hot wire as he raced down the main intersection of the mid Gotham. His gloved hands gripped the handles as his hazel eyes glared intensely at the empty stores, smashed vehicles and broken up bits of metal filling in back streets.

Bruce was dressed in his brown leather jacket with red spots along the sleeves, his expression covered by a red helmet as he clutched the throttle of the Augusta MV, his favorite sports bike that he sustained in strong back in the secret bunker. He shut his eyes for a split instant as the passion of his wife became a distraction, making him lose focus on the road. Selina rested on her head along his spine every bit her hands splayed the black shirt covering his muscled chest with a dense, sensual caress.

He swerved the wheel into the curb, nearly sideswiping a squad car as he felt her lips hotly brush over the expose skin of his neck. He responded quickly, forming into the next lane before the shock. "Are you trying to get us killed?" he growled under the helmet, his voice matched the powerful roar of the ninja bike. "I need to hold my eyes on the road and your hands need to stay out of my pants."

"Well, if you let me drive... We would be at the docks by this time."

"You ways of driving are a bit reckless. You scratched the paint off of my other bike and then made a few dents in the Lamboughni back in Florence. I'll handle the ride from here."

Selina rolled her eyes rolled at this, "What are you my father?" she charged back with a growl resting in her throat. ""You're my husband not a bickering old man ordering his daughter how to ride in the fast lanes."

Bruce clenched his jaw hard, his fingers seized the handles tighter as he released an irritated exhale, "You're my wife and the mother of my daughter. Until you figure out how to control that fire in your veins, you're staying away from the bike's controls." He made a sharp turn at a hanging traffic light, and then sped towards Gotham Bay. "We collect the supplies we need from the cargo holds, and then we clear out."

"What's your hurry handsome?" Selina purred hotly, against his neck, her arms draped loosely over his torso."Lexie is like Lucius at the manor. We've got plenty of time to have some fun."

Bruce screeched the tires the Augusta a halt at a walkway, he twisted his boot off the gas pedal and looked over his shoulder at his wife."Let me make this readable for you honey," He said using a his bat growl for good measure. "As soon as the sun breaks down over the Bay, no one is safe." He narrowed his eyes at her sleek leather pants before he added, "Not even if you are holding a gun strapped to your leg."

Selina twisted her red lips into a defiant smirk, "Nothing gets passed you." She averred, and then put her hands on the sides of the helmet and relieve it off of his mind, taking in his dark chestnut locks fall over the base of his neck as she tucked the helmet under her sleeve. She wound her long fingers through his damp strands, and the pressed the soft swells of her breasts into his back. She swept her lips over his ear, preparing the skin grew hot with her breath, "Don't you think we need some alone time, Mr. Wayne?"

Bruce issued a sharp exhale, and then pointed his chin to a cap of the brownstone across, he felt the edges of his smooth lips slack up into a smug grin, "I'll admit it's been a long time since we've personal space from Lexie."

He narrowed his hazel eyes downwards at his grappling gun attached to his belt hostler.

Bruce twisted round, enclosed his arms about her trim body and raised her up against his torso, and then he ran across the street, and fired his grappling wire to a ledge, pressed a button and both of them moved up to the roof.

After seconds both of them moved to a rampart, he pressed her hard into the stairwell, his chest rubbed over hers as she worked her hips with his, and then he raised her up above his wide shoulders. He gazed upward at his wife, with shining hazel eyes, she was beautiful in the sunlight dressed in a dark leather jacket, pants and her same sharp-edged boots from practical and flattering her cat suit.

He brushed off a few bangs out of her large chocolate eyes, and then narrowed his penetrating stare at her red, dangerous lips waiting for his hungry lips.

Selina narrowed her brown eyes down, stroking her fingers through his wavy locks and then locked her gaze with the darkness, intense in his hazel orbs. She smiled sweetly, and then unzipped her jacket, reading off a black brassiere. He chuckled hollowly with a smirk, not surprise that she wore nothing underneath anything leather.

"It's been a long time," she whispered, giving him a savage smirk, seeming at the corners of his mouth twitch into a warm smile.

"Yes," he uttered with a firm growl, tucking the strands of auburn behind her ear, "Yes, it has."

Bruce lowered her down softly, locking his arm over her trim waist, and touched his to hers, tasting, and then relishing her lips, she pressed harder against, he enclosed his hand fully around her body, his knuckles stroke out the mass of her straight, auburn hair.

He deepened his kiss ever so slowly. He didn't rush, just enjoyed, and explored her hot mouth, tongue entangled delicately around hers as his mouth roughly pressed with a commanding thrust he inhaled her deeply, and then pushed hard against the rampart.

He ran his mouth intensely under hers, trying out the sweetening water on his bruised lips, and then he broke away to kiss her cheekbones, her frontal bone as his hand roamed down, sculpting heat with her curves. He felt the firmness of her muscles and smiled against her skin, before touching his forehead to hers, she looked at him with her dazzling chocolate-mahogany orbs and she smiled.

Smiled.

He traced it with a gentle caress of his finger, closing his eyes as he felt his blood boil and nerves melt as they stripped their clothing fully off of their bodies and with one fluent movement, she pinned him to the cement and opened herself to him as their bodies were brought together and they both released themselves into waves passion.

"We need to head to the docks," he drew out a ragged breath, kissing her feverishly on the jaw.

Both Bruce and Selina quickly dressed, and went to the stairs, not knowing that she just conceived a brother or a sister for Lexie.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 12**

* * *

It was quite in the underground bunker. Bruce sat in the desk chair was Lexie curled against his chest, one of his arms supported her back while his other hand gently stroked through her golden straight locks. He narrowed his crisp hazel eyes on her gentle face, absorbing her still features as she nuzzled against his black T- shirt.

Lexie was his life, calming and hope. She was a perfect blend of Selina, alabaster skin, freckles on her nose and ruby lips but she was a spitting image of him, piercing autumn colored eyes that turned into a soft green in the sunlight and straight blonde hair that will change into a darker chestnut color.

Her tiny body covered in a long sleeve black sweater and jeans with a light blue denim, and a stuff animal cat tucked under her arm as he watched intensely and with steadfast gaze of his hazel eyes, her lips part two released a silent breath.

He smiled to himself as images of their blissful life in Florence skimmed through his mind.

_They were walking on the beach, the Italian heat beaming over their bodies, Selina was at his side taking delicate sips of a water, her lithe and shapely body was hidden in a clean tank top and a blue turquoise skirt, her long chocolate locks twirled in the humid breeze as distant rolls of thunder reverberated around them._ _He was clothed in a plain white shirt and jeans, his arms were occupied as he took his baby girl, placing her bottom on his firm shoulder, one hand was holding her chubby arm and his other hand resting gently over her leg._

_Lexie gripped his Gotham Rogues baseball cap in her tiny hand as her bright eyes gazed at the rolling waves crashing along the white sands. She wiggled slightly as Bruce looked up with a big smile playing across his lips, his face was fuller and skin tone golden with a healthy glow was his hazel eyes dazzled in the currents of brightness of the afternoon.  
_

_Selina rested her face against his broad shoulder, smiling drowsily at him, with fondness in her dark caramel eyes. She stretched out a hand and tickled her daughter's rounded belly as Lexie made a sweet, giggling noise that made both her and Bruce laugh with adoration gleaming in their dark eyes.  
_

_"She's a daddy's girl," Selina said in a whisper, looking at her daughter's little hand resting on Bruce's chiseled cheek, as he held his eyes transfixed on her, and his smile got broader as he laughed hollowly, showing his jagged canines as the smile reached his eyes._

_Bruce lowered Lexie to his chest, and drew out his wife in close against him. "I think she's more like you than you think."  
_

_Selina snickered, staring at her daughter fingering his sunglasses and pulling them off his shirt's collar, "I guess you're right."_

_He hesitated for a bit, twisting his arm round her waist as Lexie snuggled her face against his neck before he mouthed again, "She's both of us combine." He drew his lips hot over the side of her neck. "Stubborn, brazen and very moody if she doesn't get her own way."_

_"Well, you have to admit we've made one lethal kid," she curled her lips into a defiant smirk. "I wonder what she'll drive first the Tumbler or the Batpod?"_

_Bruce curled his lips infectiously into a smile, lifting his head to meet her warm caramel eyes. "If she has your sense of style," he pursed his lips upwards before adding, "I'm betting on the Batpod."_

_She grinned. "The Batpod was built for a dangerous woman that loves firepower in her clutch."_

_"And I know how much you miss it and firing the canons at moving targets." Bruce chided, raising his eyebrows._

_"You have to admit I looked driving it through the streets," she pressed her hand on his torso, parting her lips as he tilted his head down. "Too bad we couldn't take it for a test drive. It's been way too long to unleash its power, right?"_

_Bruce groaned. "Maybe on our twenty five wedding anniveisty."_

_"I'll hold to that handsome." she brushed her lips on the curve of his strong jaw. "Maybe sooner than you think."_

_"What sort of role models are we going to be for our little girl if we go around giving out every rule on the road?" Bruce stated, shooting her a severe facial expression. "Not to mention getting caught wearing our suits?"_

_She shrugged, watching Lexie slowly close her eyes as she slept against Bruce's shoulder. "Well, you know what they say.. It's more fun if you don't get caught. Just imagine the police chases and the high adrenaline rush and don't lie to me that you don't miss it?"  
_

_Bruce shook his head, tightening his jaw, his tone more serious "Something tells me, you experience that last night?"_

_Selina raised her eyebrow to him. "You still don't trust me?"_

_"I trust you, Selina." He breathed out a grumble of disappointment, "When you're not acting careless and stealing another diamond necklace."_

_"Earrings," she rebuffed._

_"Whatever," he growled, tearing his eyes away from her. "The point is you need to stop with your habits... You're the mother of my child and my wife. I don't want you to make another serious mistake that will affect all of us. We need to put Gotham behind us and be there when Lexie needs us."_

_Her eyes narrowed, "So you're saying that if I don't change my ways, that I won't be able to watch her grew up?"_

_"No. That's not what I meant," he spoke softly, caressing his fingers over her cheek. "We're in this together, Selina. For better and for worse. You're my wife and I love you no matter what," He lowered his eyes, and drew out a somber breath, "I know that it's hard to adapt to this life without the masks... But I need you just like I did when we saved Gotham from the League of Shadows. You're everything to me and if you want to be Catwoman again, then I won't stop you. Not because you will kick my ass, but because I know that's who you are underneath."_

_She got lost in his shimmering eyes, noting how much lighter the green welled within golden flecks had become since they left Gotham. His handsome face no longer gray but full of contentment and youth. Cheeks fuller from indulging her leftovers during the craving sessions, and his dark hair -which was growing over his ears was tousled with bangs sloped over his his temples and had effortlessly vibe to the stylish waves ending at the nape of his neck. He was bulking up, his biceps heavy with muscle and chest fuller._

_ Bruce was her husband, equal partner and soul mate. _

_She didn't want to lose the one thing she cherished more than anything in her black and white world.  
_

_"Something wrong, Selina?" He growled, cupping his hand over her jaw._

_She gazed at him with a piercing glare, and then shoved her hand into her purse, pulling away a pair of diamond heart earrings, turned her hand ended and threw them to the footing at his sandals."I'm fine." she answered, striking closer and lifting Lexie's hand, rubbing her lips over the baby's chubby fingers. "I guess I needed to have some sense knocked back into me, huh?"  
_

_He smirked warmly at her, "If you needed that I would have called Alfred. He's better at that in more ways than you think." he said, nose to nose with her. "But I'm glad you made the right choice."  
_

_"Don't get used to it," she stated with a mischievous glimmer in her brown eyes."I can still steal other things."_

_"Other things," he repeated with a raspy voice, with an uneasy stare, "Like what?"  
_

_"This," she crashed her lips onto incredibly soft mouth and lifted her coiled her slender arms around his neck, and in that blink of an eye she felt his hot lips move under hers.  
_

_Lexie nuzzled in between their bodies, cooing the steady drums of their hearts._

Bruce opened his eyes to the sound of the lift descending on the cement floor, the clicking of stiletto heels wafted behind him and alerted his gaze to the presence of Selina. He rose from the chair, Lexie still clung to his shoulders, and he turned around and took in the sight of his wife sauntering closer to the computer desk.

Her tall, lithe and deadly body covered in black spandex and Kevlar. Goggles were flipped upwards revealed the red lenses as her silky, long auburn hair captured the fluorescent glow of the low ceiling lights. The suit's zipper was down enough to show a hint of cleavage and piercing dark caramel eyes stared directly at him with a gleam of a huntress under the mask. Her full burgundy lips were smirking as she swayed her curves to him and looked at her three-year old daughter nestled underneath his arm.

"Not much is happening out there," she stated with a whisper, drawing away her mask and going down the goggles down on a bench. His eyes didn't leave her once as she brushed back the loose strands of hair off her forehead and stepped closer to him. "A few bodies were in the subway tunnels. Gordon plans to Blake and a new rookie down on to the northeast tunnel tonight."

Bruce lowered his solemn hazel eyes down, "They won't find anything down in the tunnels. Alive." he growled with harden disdain.

"There is, however a chance that more survivors are out on that point, Bruce." She answered with a steady voice, drawing his lips with a gloved finger."We have to look harder during patrol."

He nodded and then pressed a chaste kiss over her lips. In truth he knew that infected victims would be hunting for fresh meat to feed their young. He had to ready to fight with every breath to protect his daughter from the unleashed horrors waiting in the shadows, he needed to fight harder and be stronger for his family.

He needed to embrace his greatest fears once again and own the skies of Gotham.

* * *

Meanwhile, John Blake made his way down through the shadows of the subway tunnel, his boots crunched over the crumbling pieces of cement falling from the decaying slums of the tunnel's structure. His dark brown eyes sweep over the area of the rails methodically as he switched on his LD Lightstick and stepped soundlessly over the rails.

His rookie partner, Carlos Roderize trailed slowly back further from him with a livid and alert brown eyes as they walked passed the columns and listened to the drips of water escaping from the leaking pipes sticking out of the grime covered walls. They both froze into the echoing movements and peered at the dark shafts of the tunnels.

Scanning the area between the opening of the tunnel, Blake kept his composure stern as he advanced farther into the darkening corners. He paused in his steps and tossed a gaze over a narrow opening of a cement stairwell, filled with litter and inactive rails. He parted his lips and released a sharp exhale, turning to his partner as he spoke in a low voice, "We need to stay alert. I have no idea what else in these tunnels."

"Marcus said that the bat freaks feed off of human flesh." Carlos stammered, his hand shaking the flashlight. "We need a task force down here. Not just two officers from the MCU." He swallowed a lump down his throat, eyes shifting the murky puddles of water forming on the cement. "You've sent us on a suicide mission, Blake."

"Will you be quiet," Blake growled, giving the young rookie an infuriating glare. "I'm just scouting the area to find any surviving victims." He moved to a column, pressed his back against the cement, and steadied his breathing patterns as a distinct smell of rotting flesh invaded his nostrils.

He raised his gaze to the ceiling with the light source reflecting over spatters of bloody hand prints

Blake swept his hand to his side and signaled the rookie to move closer to his position. Slowly he bent down on his knees and placed the Light Stick on the ground. He waited for Carlos to squat down next to him and then he affirmed with a whisper. "Whatever human is down here... I afraid we'll only find remains in the tunnels."

"Remains," Carlos gulped down, blood drained from his cheeks. "I thought bats don't eat humans."

"We're dealing with mutated victims of an effective toxic that changes human biology if bitten by an infected carrier." Blake narrowed his dark eyes down, as grim semblance veiled over his youthful face. "They feed off of the blood of their prey and leave only empty shells of drained bodies. The important thing that we need to be cautious of is if the bat creatures are starting to breed in the nest they built." He looked up for a brief moment, before he concluded."Within the tunnels."

Carlos dropped his stare to the rails, and discovered a few gooey and drained skeletons piled up to decompose on the trails, he leveled a finger at the horrific sight and spread over his mouth. He felt his stomach churn as bile rose up his throat. "I think I've seen enough."

Blake nodded, and straightened to his boots, he looked down at the bodies covered in tattered remains of GCPD uniforms and clenched his jaw hard before turning his eyes aside, "Humanity has passed to the bats."


End file.
